Chapter 5
Chapter five
Blazin’
Maverick
“Hey dumbass!”
I groaned, tilting my head skyward as I blew out a puff of smoke.
What the hell did Cash want? That was such a loaded question. There was no limit to what dumb shit that dickhead could want. Each scenario that played out in my head worse and worse than the last.
“What’dya want?” I muttered, my gaze flicking to him as I pressed the cigar to my lips once more.
“You done fucked up,” he said, sauntering over and smacking me square in the chest halfheartedly.
I batted his hand away. “The hell are you talkin’ about?”
Cash shook his head, a hint of a smirk lighting up his features. “You remember our first rodeo?” he asked, voice casual as he leaned against the wall beside me, stealing my cigar from my hand and taking a drag.
I frowned but nodded. “Yeah.”
Smoke billowed around him as he spoke. “Remember how we were all set up. Everythin’ was good to go.
That shoot opened, the steer shot out the gate.
We went tearing down the arena after it, and you just kept swingin’ and swingin’ and swingin’ your rope.
You were right there. One fuckin’ throw away from catchin’ it, but you just… kept on swingin’.”
What the hell was he gettin’ on about? He was spending too much time around his dad. Only Bad ever told stories like that.
I shrugged. “Yeah, I remember.”
Cash pushed off the wall and turned to face me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You just did the same shit right now with that girl.”
I scoffed, my brow furrowing tightly. “You talkin’ about Cheyenne?”
Another smack to my chest. “No fuckin’ shit I’m talkin’ about Cheyenne, dumbass.
” He shook his head, his usually playful gaze holding a seriousness it almost never possessed.
“Girls like her don’t come around too often.
You gonna sit there fuckin’ with your rope and let her get away, or get ya some fuckin’ money? ”
I sighed. I still didn’t quite know what to feel about the interaction her and I had just had.
I know I’d come off like a dick…I hadn’t meant to.
I was just shocked is all. I still didn’t understand…
Why me? What about me seemed worth getting to know?
Worth wasting her time over? I wasn’t funny and cocky like Cash.
I wasn’t inquisitive and confident like Ryder.
I was broken and boring. It was hard to think why she’d approach me.
Not when she could spend the night with any number of guys.
I didn’t miss the way people watched her.
Hell, I couldn’t even stop watching her.
When she’d gotten up close, pressing a hand to my chest, and I’d inhaled her citrusy scent, something had sparked in me. She had an electric touch. One that brought the broken, shattered pieces of my soul back to life for a moment.
That is until I’d pissed her off and she’d walked away, leaving me feeling cold as ice.
I thought of Ashleigh. Had I ever felt that electric touch with her? That…spark? It’d been so long since I’d felt anything but hopelessness with her, I couldn’t even remember.
Stop thinkin’ bout her. We were done. Had been for a while, if I were bein’ honest. I pulled another cigar and my lighter out of my back pocket and lit it.
“Goddamn, Mav. Why you still thinkin’ about that bi—”
A low growl rumbled out of my throat, the protective part of me refusing to let anyone bad mouth Ashleigh, no matter what misdeeds she’d done to me. I wasn’t one to talk shit, and I’d not let others do it about the people I cared about.
Cash raised his hands in a placating gesture.
“Sorry… Look I know you don’t wanna hear it, but I’m tired of watchin’ that girl hurt you.
Time and time again she fucks you over. And you just take it.
Again and again. Not even realizing you got somethin’ way better right in front of you.
Cheyenne ain’t the type to chase after someone… and yet she chased after you.”
I shrugged, blowing out a deep exhale of smoke. “I don’t know why.”
Cash huffed, shaking his head as he all but rolled his eyes. “Fuck, Mav. You always gotta be so fuckin’ self loathin’? No wonder she’s so pissed.”
“You talked to her?” I asked.
I wondered what she’d said. Probably a whole string of curses. Girl had a mouth on her, especially when she was pissed.
“She came stormin’ in a few minutes ago. Look…ain’t nobody sayin’ you gotta marry the girl, but at least give her a chance. You’ve been so hung up on Ashleigh for so long, it’s like you don’t even know how to interact with a woman.”
I hated when Cash made sense. When he sounded reasonable. I hated it more when he was right. Cuz when he was, I was usually the one in the wrong.
I pursed my lips, grumbling around my cigar, “I get your point.”
Cash took a final drag and put his cigar out against the wall. “I sure hope ya do.”
I snorted a laugh, rolling my eyes. “Get off the damn soap box, Cash. Reasonable ain’t your best look.”
That confident, cocky smirk lit up his face once more. “Nope, but drunk sure is.”
“You’re a fuckin’ idiot.”
“Nah, not tonight, bud. You earned that role fair and square.”
“Get fucked,” I huffed, flipping him the bird, even as my lips curved into a grin.
He winked, that smirk pulling into a full-fledged smile. “Oh, I plan to.” He started backpedaling as he called out, “Go, talk to her.”
I waved him off, taking another drag as I thought of Cheyenne. I still didn’t know what she saw in me, but Cash was right. She didn’t seem like the chasin’ after type. At the very least, I wanted to know more about what she found so intriguing about me.
Making my way towards the double doors, I put out my cigar and threw it away. Looked like I had some apologizing to do.
It didn’t take long to find her. She sat on a stool at one of the bars across the way. I leaned against the table we’d reserved for the night, trying and failing to work up the nerve to go talk to her.
Go. Just go. But it’s like my feet were stuck in concrete slabs. No amount of self-encouragement could move me even an inch. What if I’d blown it? What if she told me to fuck off? I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. She seemed the fiery type. The kind of girl to have a short fuse.
Go.
Drawing up every ounce of willpower, I took a step forward…and then another…just as a guy slid into the seat beside her, angling his body toward her as he dipped his face toward her to start a conversation.
I sighed, the breath leaving me in a slow whoosh. Looks like you lost your chance, dumbass. The damn voice in my head reminded me of Cash—maybe not quite as obnoxious, but still annoying, though.
I shrank back against the table, whatever sliver of confidence I’d mustered up withering away to ash. Probably better this way anyway. She’d realize pretty quick I wasn’t kidding when I said I was no fun at all.
I was just about to go back outside when two familiar voices came from my left.
“How’s it goin, man?” Ryder’s voice drew my gaze.
He and Charlie came to a stop before me, Ryder’s arm wrapped around her waist, her hand in his back pocket. The two of them were slick with sweat, but a lightness danced on both of their faces, in their eyes.
I shrugged. “It’s goin’. Y’all look like you’re havin’ fun.”
Charlie smiled, leaning into Ryder, who seemed to pull her closer to him.
She was barely pregnant, way too early to be showing, but I couldn’t accurately describe Charlie as anything less than glowing.
She’d always been a knockout, but the happiness and light in her eyes made her truly something to behold.
They weren’t lying when they talked about a baby glow, I guess.
That, and since she and Ryder had gotten back together, both of them had been on cloud nine.
She looked up at Ryder. “Mind grabbing me a water?” she asked, leaning up and pressing a kiss to his lips.
He kissed her back before nodding. “Of course, darlin’.” Ryder glanced at me. “Want anythin’?”
I shook my head, muttering a thanks.
“So…what’s got you down?” Charlie asked, sliding into a seat beside me, nudging me with her shoulder.
I grunted, but the softest smile curved my lips upward.
She and I had gotten close since Ryder joined the Pbr team.
Turns out, Charlie sucked at cooking, so I’d been giving her lessons…
Well, that’s what she liked to call them.
She’d just sit on the counter chatting away about any and everything that came to mind, while I cooked.
It worked though. I liked to cook, and she liked to talk. She didn’t hover or pester me like Cash, and I didn’t interrupt her stories. It was a win-win.
I shrugged, then thought of Cheyenne and how she’d called me out on that. Did I really shrug that much? I guess I did. I fought the urge to shrug again. “Nothin’,” I muttered.
Her head tilted to the side, her soft smile dipping into a scowl as she placed a hand on her hip. “You’re as bad at lying as Cash it at staying sober.”
“So basically, shit at it?” I offered lightly, a crooked smirk forming on my mouth.
“Yep.” She laughed, before sobering a moment later. “Seriously though, what’s going on?”
My gaze flicked to Cheyenne across the bar, talking animatedly to that same cowboy. Letting out a breath, I glanced back at Charlie. “I fucked up.”
Her brow furrowed. “How? With who?”
“With Cheyenne.” I drummed my fingers against the polished wood tabletop, trying and failing to keep from looking back at her. But I was little more than a moth drawn to a damn flame.
“Ah…you finally realized she was into you?” Charlie’s lips pulled up into a knowing smirk.
Had everyone known she was into me but me? Was I really that oblivious? I launched into an abbreviated retelling of what had happened between us outside, even going so far as to mention how she’d even said something to Cash about our conversation.
“I don’t even know what to do at this point,” I huffed, my shoulders curling up into a shrug.
Charlie pursed her lips before settling on a soft smile as she pressed a hand to my forearm. “Oh, Mav…. She wants you to chase after her. To talk to her. To play the game.”
“I ain’t good at games,” I admitted.
Clearly, Ashleigh had been playing games with me since we were kids and I still always lost in the end. Besides, I didn’t want to play games. I wanted…hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted.
Charlie squeezed my arm. “Then just go talk to her.”
“About what?”
She chuckled. “About anything. Her. You. Your interests. It doesn’t matter. Just…talk to her.”
Ryder returned just then, a bottle of water for Charlie in one hand and a beer in the other. “What’d I miss?”
“Mav was just saying how he was gonna go talk to Cheyenne.”
I speared her with a harsh glare, my mouth popping open. “No, I—”
Her lips curved into a challenging grin, even as Ryder clapped me on the shoulder. “Good on ya, man. It’s about damn time you noticed her.”
Seriously, had everyone known but me? Maybe Cheyenne was right. I was oblivious. That, or I’d just been so wrapped up in Ashleigh I hadn’t really been paying attention. My gaze settled on Cheyenne once more. Well, I was paying attention now.
A flicker of jealousy writhed within me as I watched her across the way. She laughed at something the guy said, but from the tightness in her smile, the way she sat turned away from him, how she’d stopped drinking her cocktail… I knew she wasn’t into him.
Was it bad of me that I wanted to go over there? That I wanted to be the one who made her laugh? Earlier today all I could think of was Ashleigh, and now here I was, jealous over a girl I didn’t even know?
Charlie nudged me once more, pulling my stare. “Go save her, Mav.”
“She don’t look like she needs savin’,” I muttered, some of my nerves getting the best of me.
What if she was still pissed at me? What if she was actually enjoying herself and didn’t want me to interrupt her?
What if…what if…what if, the little voice in my head mocked.
Ryder came up beside me, gripping my shoulders and giving a reassuring squeeze. “She may not need savin’, but that don’t mean she don’t want it. Go get her, before you lose her.”
I inhaled slowly, drawing in every scared, negative, worrisome emotion inside me, and blowing it out. Resolve welled up as I nodded. “Alright. I got this.”
With newfound confidence—however misplaced—I pushed off from my spot at the table and made my way toward her. My slow, sure footsteps were in direct opposition of my wildly thumping heart. It all but galloped out of my damn chest.
And then she stood up, flashed the cowboy a smile, and waltzed toward the exit without a backward glance.
Fuck. Chasing her sure wasn’t going to be easy.